Miller announces his arrival in style

After the frustrations suffered from a hit-and-miss stint on the west coast at Blackpool earlier this season, Ishmael Miller joined Huddersfield Town on deadline day determined to prove he was still capable of producing the goods at this level.

He has featured in each of the five games since switching from Lee Clark's basement boys to Chris Powell's project at Town and there had been mixed results, as he mirrored his new side's slack home form and their upturn in away fortunes.

But against Reading he was the catalyst for victory, ramming any doubts about his ability and temperament back down the critics' throats and vindicating Powell's gamble to bring him in when others thought they were dodging a bullet.

The rangy frontman came in for James Vaughan as the manager looked to counter the Royals' physical defensive pairing of the 6ft 4in Michael Hector and the combative Alex Pearce.

But if that duo were fielded in an attempt to intimidate Town in any way, it failed spectacularly as Miller combined an altruistic desire to run into the channels and commit defenders with some assured solo play and rounded off what was a dominant performance with a perfectly-weighted finish for his goal.

Hogg makes his presence felt

In the build-up to the Cardiff City bore draw, Town's midfield enforcer was billed as a potential gamechanger in their attempts to get back to winning ways at home.

Powell's side had lacked the industry and intensity he provides in a narrow defeat to Leeds United and against Wolves his absence led to an overly-cavalier midfield setup and a 4-1 defeat to boot.

He wasn't able to have enough of an impact on Saturday due to a range of factors, but he made up for lost time here with a busy midfield display alongside Jacob Butterfield at the heart of midfield in a 3-4-1-2 setup.

He won a number of aerial challenges, tackles and was typically composed in his passing game and enabled Powell to strike up a much-needed balance between defence and attack.

His qualities were best typified by the way in which he intercepted a loose Reading pass before playing a swift one-two and catapulting his side forward on the counter with a quite stunning pass which ultimately resulted in Miller's goal.

Town can turn up the tempo

Powell and his players came in for criticism after the 0-0 draw with Cardiff but, as he rightly alluded to after the game, that point does not look so bad now it has been backed up with a result and performance of the highest order.

His charges had been urged to "up the tempo" after some turgid play last time out but if the boss had hoped for an increase by a couple of notches, then even he will have been surprised by the way Town came flying out the traps.

Seeing the Terriers go for the kill from the get-go was reminiscent of the win over Nottingham Forest by the same scoreline earlier this term when Town were able to notch an early goal and knock the stuffing out of their visitors.

This accumulation of qualities, at both ends of the field, was what supporters had been craving ever since and though they have been put through the mill by an untimely dip in form on their own patch.

The manager's words were heeded and some here, with Reading unable to react to their hosts' fast start and determination to atone for the mistakes made at the weekend until it was too little, too late.

Bunn thrives at No.10

Perhaps it was the enforced changes in personnel, an eagerness to prove his worth in the position, or maybe just the gameplan as a whole, but Harry Bunn's latest experimental role in the hole paid dividends.

At Rotherham United on Boxing Day, he was unable to provide the requisite defensive protection while at Millwall he wasn't able to show his true quality until Nahki Wells' dismissal, which inadvertently acted as an incentive for him to move wide, help protect his full-back and have more of an attacking responsibility.

But, with Conor Coady and Sean Scannell both absent through illness and a hamstring injury respectively, Powell had precious few options but to deploy him in the spaces between midfield and attack.

His 10th-minute goal would normally have acted as the embellishment on an otherwise committed display, but it was actually the indefatigable work at both ends thereafter which was the most decorative feature for the versatile youngster.

The bullet header to finish off Butterfield's inch-perfect free-kick gave him renewed confidence and he gave Town great pace in the transition centrally as well as being able to win the second balls from Miller and Nahki Wells' lay-offs, a crucial dimension for the Terriers with the quality of the pitch continuing to cause some problems.

Norwood's struggles illustrate improvement in midfield

As the full-time whistle neared and Town fans entered carnival mode ahead of moving up to the dizzying heights of the top-half of the table (Town's highest position thus far in 2014/2015), chants of "Norwood, Norwood, what's the score," became more and more audible.

The former Town man had arguably been the Royals' best player on the night and that was hardly a ringing endorsement as he struggled to impose himself in front of his former fans.

Had he succeeded in channeling his inner Xabi Alonso with an audacious attempt at a long-range lob over Alex Smithies, the narrative could have been completely different, both in terms of his comeback and the end result.

Aside from that, however, a free-kick delivery from which Hope Akpan forced Smithies into a smart reflex stop was the sum total of his contribution to the contest as he floated about on the peripheries and even began misplacing routine passes towards the end.

Town fans' major gripe with the former Manchester United trainee was his inability to roll his sleeves up and adapt to the task at hand when the going gets tough and, on this evidence, he is yet to add that trait to his game with the Madejski Stadium outfit as Butterfield and Hogg dominated in midfield.